This invention relates to magnetic materials comprising one or more transition metals, one or more rare earth elements and iron. A variety of such materials are known. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,374,665, 4,402,770, 4,409,043 and 4,533,408 of Koon, which disclose magnetic alloys comprising iron, lanthanum and a lanthanide, and boron; U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,802,931 and 4,851,058 to Croat, which disclose single phase TM-RE-B alloys, U.S. Pat. No. 4,935,074 of DeMooij et al., which discloses a material including iron, a relatively high percentage of boron, and Nd and/or Pr; U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,493 to Mizogochi et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,723 to Sgawa et al. Methods of preparing such magnetic materials are taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,867,785 and 5,116,434 to Keem et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,715,891 and 4,753,675 to Ovshinsky et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,859 to Kanekiyo et al. and in a Journal of Applied Physics article by Kanekiyo et al., J. Appl. Phys. 83, pg 6265, (1998).
In general, the magnetic material is prepared in two-steps. The first step is to prepare a substantially homogeneous master alloy of the desired composition of the various components, and then to break the alloy into relatively large, e.g., 1 cm pieces, that can be easily remelted for later processing. The second step is to remelt the alloy in a crucible, and then to quench and rapidly solidify (e.g., 25–30 micron and not over 50 microns thick) homogeneous ribbon. Typically the quenching and rapid solidification is accomplished by passing the melted material through a small (e.g., 1 mm in diameter) orifice onto a moving chill surface, e.g., a rotating chill surface such as that shown in aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,867,785.
Typically, the ribbon is then crushed into fine powder, the powder is then heat treated and magnetically separated (e.g., as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,116,434) to separate powder having high magnetic parameters from that having lower magnetic parameters, and the high magnetic parameter powder is made into permanent magnets.
The above described procedures, and particularly the quenching and rapid solidification, are expensive and subject to a number of potential problems and difficulties. For example, unsatisfactory product may result from variations in the flow from the crucible caused by alloy/crucible reaction products, slag or products of reaction between the atmosphere and the molten alloy at the crucible orifice that can clog or impede flow through the small crucible orifice, or for relatively small variations in the chill surface temperature or surface speed that affect the quench rate and/or ribbon thickness resulting in unacceptable products.
There has been, and remains, a need for a process that is less expensive and has fewer difficult-to-control parameters.